Fractured
by Ah Hael
Summary: Innocence can be a burden and a curse disguised as a blessing. It is up to someone to break that innocence. *Warning: Spoilers for current chapters and dark themes*


Title: Fractured

Author: Ah Hael

Genre: Angst, Dark

Rating: T

Pairings: Natsume & Mikan

Spoilers: Events from chapter 88 to chapter 116

Summary: Sometimes innocence can be a burden and a curse hidden as a blessing. It falls to one person to destroy a treasured innocence.

Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah not mine. Yadda, yadda, yadda never will be. Boo-hoo created and owned by Tachiba Higuchi. Satisfied?

**Warning: This is a dark story that will take you places you probably don't want to go.**

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**Are you still reading?**

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**You should probably turn back.**

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**Well alright, don't say I didn't warn you.**

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**Fractured**

Noda completed his materialization and took a moment while he waited for the usual disorientation to wear off. One would think he would be used to being chewed up by temporal distortions and spit out at random points in time, but he still resented it.

Especially at times like this. Things had begun to get very serious at the Academy. His own student, Mikan Sakura, had openly displayed her stealing alice in the middle of the sports festival.

Even though her use of it was accidental, there was still going to be serious repercussions. It was unavoidable. He shuddered to think of what might be happening to her while he was stuck in this time distortion. That girl was far too innocent and far too sweet to become one of Principal Kounji's playthings. This was the absolute worst time for him to be away from the Academy and stuck in another time. Looking about him, he tried to figure out when he was.

Oddly, it was the feel that told him where he was rather than the scenery. Ash and dust clogged his nostrils and the feelings of destruction and despair hung in the air like a miasma trying to choke him with their oppressive weight.

He was on a battlefield.

He didn't know where or when, but the feel was unmistakable. He'd materialized in them before and he had learned that all battlefields the world over possessed that ominous feel. Now which battle was he stuck in and how long would it take for him to navigate himself back to his time?

All around him was rubble. The area looked like some mad giant had run through and crushed all the buildings in the area. Fortunately for him there wasn't much in the way of bodies around. He had always hated walking into a battlefield littered with corpses and body parts. It gave him nightmares for weeks. Hopefully wherever he was, the people had enough chance to get away.

Moving forward a bit in a random direction he began to explore his surroundings.

What little there was of the buildings were clearly modern materials, so he figured he had to at least be in the twentieth century, but he couldn't place where he was. The devastation was everywhere and so complete that he was soon brought to the assumption that this was no ordinary battle. Either a natural disaster occurred at the same time as the battle, or the combatants were using weapons of mass destruction.

He walked past a piece of charred wall and forcibly suppressed a shudder when he saw the sole of a smallish sized boot sticking out from under it.

_Easy Noda_ he told himself in an effort to distance himself from the horror. It was a common defense tactic for him when he was stuck in battlefields. _It is just a boot, and there is noting to prove that there was a foot attached to it. _Even if there was a human foot in the boot, the occupant was beyond all hope.

He walked quickly forward, fighting the bile that wanted to rise up his throat. He passed a copse of trees that had been completely uprooted and splintered when he finally saw something he recognized. Even when he recognized it, his mind was flat out rejecting what his eyes saw. There, lying on the ground in front of him was a fragment from the face of a very large clock.

The clock from the tower on the elementary division of the Alice Academy to be precise.

For several moments he tried to tell himself that it must be some other clock. That he was somewhere else, and this chaos and devastation was nowhere near his academy. That the small boot he just saw could not possibly belong to one of his students, but there could be no mistake. He had seen that clock countless times.

He spun around surveying the damage with a clearer eye. Somehow he was on the Academy campus and by the sheer devastation around him could only be sometime in the future.

A rage that he wasn't used to experiencing burned inside him. What the hell happened here? Did Z attack? Some splinter group of the AAO? Was that bastard principal Kuonji behind this?

Noda needed answers quickly. Trips into the future never lasted for very long but because they were still in the future and the future was constantly in flux. The good news was because it was still in flux it could still be changed. Unlike the past, he could still stop this from happening, but he needed to find out what had caused this disaster. Quickly, before he gets snapped back to the present like a rubber band.

The time traveler jogged lightly through the surrounding debris always on the alert for anything that might give him a clue as to what happened. He tried to tell himself that his increased breathing rate was because he was moving and not the edge of a panic attack. _Something Noda! Find something! Why aren't there any papers, no shell casings from weapons, no bodies? Where is everybody? What happened to all of the children?_ He wondered frantically.

The silence in the area was suddenly ripped apart by an explosion off to his right. It would be a lie to say he wasn't terrified of whatever had made the explosion, but for the sake of his students, he ran towards it rather than away.

As he neared the spot where he was sure the explosion happened, he ducked down behind a piece of wall to survey the area. The area before him was little more than a shallow crater completely free of debris with the exception of a few small fires and wisps of smoke that spun out from the center.

In the center, floating about a meter from the ground was an alice student that Noda didn't recognize. Her school uniform was tattered and her hair was shorn off in a messy half-hazard style but he could clearly make out the charred remains of a red checked skirt and torn white blouse. _A new student? She caused all of this devastation?_ He wondered to himself. She must have a terribly unstable alice and somehow lost control of it.

He let out a quiet sigh of relief. If it was an unstable alice then all he had to do when he got back to the present is tell the principal to give any new girl student stronger controlling devices. His relief lasted until the girl spoke.

"Hotaru we don't have to be like this!" she yelled in a voice that had gone unusually rough and raspy for one so young. The voice was so badly damaged, it was as unrecognizable to Noda as her appearance, but something in the way she spoke made shivers creep up his spine. There was also a slightly hysterical edge to her tone that he didn't like one bit.

"We have known each other for years! You were my best friend! There is no need to hide from me!" the girl screamed out in random directions.

The icy shivers that had been creeping up his spine, pooled and settled as ice in his gut causing him to tremble violently.

It can't be.

It just couldn't be.

It wasn't possible.

The Elementary School Principal had to be behind this. It was the only thing that made sense.

With hands and knees quaking in fear and a firm knowledge that he could be yanked back to the present at any time he stood up and away from his hiding place.

"Mikan-chan?" he whispered in a hoarse voice. It was hard to speak. Fear and horror were strangling his vocal chords and a louder sound wouldn't come out.

In the surrounding silence the small sound was enough though. The girl in the center of all this devastation turned and looked at him. For a moment she just stared at him with her head tilted to the side as she looked at him. After several very long terrifying moments, she finally spoke. "Noda sensei?" she asked in what would have been a child like voice, if her vocal chords didn't sound like they had been scrubbed with a wire brush.

And then she laughed.

Not the cheerful, make everyone else's day brighter kind of laugh that she was famous for. This laugh was more like a witch's cackle. Looking at her there, Noda almost vomited everything he had ever eaten. It was indeed Mikan Sakura. But not any Mikan he had ever known. Her face was gaunt and dirty and there were scrapes and scratches on pretty much every part of bare skin he could see. Her hair was matted and looked like it had been hacked off while she still had it in pigtails giving her head a misshapen, distorted look. The most frightening part was her eyes. Those eyes that were so bright with innocence and life, no longer held a shred of sanity in them. Nothing but clear pure madness shone through them now.

The girl before him spun in the air and cackled some more. "Noda-sensei! Noda-sensei! Noda-sensei! No-da-sen-sei!" she screamed in this weird singsong voice. Noda covered his mouth to hide his gagging.

The frightening creature stopped spinning and started floating towards him slowly forcing him to move back away from her. He didn't want any part of this thing that looked like Mikan to touch him. "I thought you were one of the lost ones Noda-sensei!"

"Lost ones?" he croaked, having no idea what a 'lost one' was and not sure he wanted to know.

Mikan didn't get a chance to respond to him because just then a solid body piled into him giving him a flying tackle to the ground. Before he even got his bearings as to whom or what hit him, he was being viciously dragged along the ground at an incredible speed.

Off in the direction where he had left Mikan, he could hear her shrieking like a banshee followed by the unmistakable sound of explosions. As the sounds started to fade, Noda's kidnapper dragged him to the remains of one of the dormitories and hauled him against the wall. He was almost as shocked to see who had dragged him as he was to see Mikan in the sate he found her in.

"Sir?" he asked, completely confused as to why High School Principal Yukihira had grabbed him.

"Noda-sensei?" the man asked him with a wild frantic look about his eyes. Noda had never seen the man look anything other than completely composed. Even when he was furious he still had a calm aura about him. This wild, almost frantic Principal Yukihira was almost as frightening as insane Mikan Sakura was.

"Yes sir?" he responded cautiously.

"You are a Noda from the past correct?" he demanded, but when the time traveler didn't immediately respond he demanded another answer. "Please just tell me what was the last thing you remember happening in your present?"

"S-s-sports f-festival," he stuttered "S-Sakura, Mikan using her stealing alice."

The man let out a great gusting sigh that blew into his face. For a moment, Noda thought the man looked like he was going to start crying until he spoke. "Thank god. There might be some hope for us yet." He leveled an intense look that was still wild around the edges at the time traveler. "You can still stop this from happening! You must go back and find me right away and tell me she needs to know the truth right away!"

"Sir?"

"I might try to stall and favor caution, but don't let me. Do whatever it takes, but _make me listen._"

Noda just nodded blindly at him. He was going to ask for more details, but they were interrupted by the teleportation of a few people. Noda's heart jumped into his throat for a moment because he was afraid it was Mikan who had caught up to them until he saw who had appeared.

Narumi appeared carrying a badly injured and unconscious Hotaru. Narumi himself was bleeding heavily from several serious cuts and he was limping badly. Beside him, hovering over the injured Hotaru was the wind alice Hayate.

Narumi was gasping for air and looked like he was ready to pass out. "We lost her," He panted, "but it won't be long until she finds us."

"Narumi, this is a Noda from the past." Principal Yukihira announced and both Hayate and Narumi looked like he was a divine being arrived to Earth.

Tears filled and spilled over Narumi's eyes and Hayate kept repeating "Thank god." Over and over again.

The question that had been lurking in his mind ever since he had appeared in this time burst out of his mouth. "What happened to Sakura-chan?" What could possibly have happened to scare these strong alices?

The answer never came to him because massive explosions began rocking the ground and they were coming closer.

As one, they all looked in the direction they were coming from. Principal Yukihira turned back to look at them. "Damn, Naru, take the kids and Noda and get out of here. Tell Noda everything he needs to know."

"My teleportation stone is almost used up. I'll stay here with you."

"We don't have time to argue about this. You're injured and useless fighting against her. Take the kids and go!" he barked.

"I'm staying." Hayate announced bravely, while looking positively terrified.

"Hayate-kun…"

"Don't say it, I can help." The young man looked at Hotaru with a miserable look on his face. "Narumi-sensei, get Cool Blue Sky to safety." He said then quickly leaned over to kiss the unconscious Imai. The kiss almost broke Noda's heart. It was the kind of kiss combined with an expression of a desperate man who didn't expect to live until sunset. The young man broke the kiss and took a deep breath, steeling himself. "Noda-sensei, I'm counting on you to make this right." He told him and turned his back on them.

Again Noda didn't get to say anything because Narumi used the last strength of his teleporting alice stone to teleport the three of them to what looked like a military bunker. Dozens of alices huddled closed together. Some were students, while some were adults who lived and worked on campus. Many of them injured, some looking lost, and all of them looked scared. It was almost too much for the man from the past to believe that one sweet little girl could cause this kind of reaction.

Narumi carried Imai over to a group of beds that had portable medical equipment around them. Noda, being unsure as what to do followed him. On the way several people recognized him and he was subjected to another round of 'Noda's here, thank God'. This time, it was mingled with a few surprise exclamations about him still being alive.

He had guessed what Mikan had meant by him being a lost one but he didn't want to believe it meant that he was dead. Not that he needed any more motivation, but now more than ever it was imperative for him to stop this future from happening. Or he had no future.

"Narumi, what happened here? I need to know to stop it. Did Principal Kuonji cause this?"

The man snorted. "No. He and his clones were some of the first to go. He was a fool to underestimate her." Tears started to fill the other man's eye and his shoulders slumped. "It's my fault. I knew there were things she needed to know and I just kept delaying." The man's voice started cracking and it was getting harder for Noda to understand him. "She was just so sweet and happy and shone so bright, I couldn't bring myself to do it. It's my fault." He finished, breaking down.

"It's all of our faults." A voice mumbled from the bed. Both men looked at Imai who was regaining consciousness. "We all loved Mikan as an adorable idiot. We got so attached to it that we started to shield her from far too many truths. If we hadn't been so selfish and tried to hard to keep her as that adorable, ignorant, idiot, none of this would have happened." She said as she opened her eyes.

The inventor's once beautiful eyes now looked dull and lifeless.

"Hotaru-chan, how are you feeling?"

"Like I had my alice ripped out of me."

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to properly protect you." Narumi apologized, but Hotaru was busy looking at Noda.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him bluntly.

"I'm from the past." What else could he say to her? A small spark of life returned to the young woman's eyes. It looked like she also might start thanking God, but she remained silent.

"Please. I need to know what exactly happened to Mikan-chan to turn her in to that… that… thing." He asked desperately. Time was running out. Any moment now he could be yanked back into a time distortion.

Narumi forcibly gained control of his emotions. "It all started when Mikan-chan revealed her stealing alice at the sports festival. The Elementary Principal started to resort to any trick to get her transferred to the Dangerous Ability class and under his control. Finally, he got Koizumi" Noda was surprised by the malicious way Narumi spat the woman's name "to set her up and she was captured. Her friends tried to help her, but Natsume had been sent away on a mission. Her sempai Tsubasa was missing, and Luka-kun…" at this point the man's voice started cracking again. "Luka-kun was accidentally killed while trying to protect Mikan."

Noda felt the sharp sting of grief over the loss of the kind animal pheromone boy but was forced to push it aside to keep listening.

"Principal Kuonji told Mikan it was her fault he died. If she had just gone along quietly without a fuss, the boy would have lived. He told her that it was her fault that all of her friends were suffering and that if she agreed to work for him, no more would have to end up like poor Luka."

Noda once again forcefully suppressed his emotions. The Elementary Principal was a bastard of the highest order. "So what happened?"

"After Mikan agreed to his terms, he began training her and also telling her distorted versions of the past. About who she was and where she came from. He told her she was the product of a teacher molesting a student. That the reason she was abandoned was because she was a painful reminder to her mother, and she believed it."

"What? How could she believe that?" Noda asked. Everyone knew that Izumi Yukihira and Yuka Azumi had genuine feelings for each other.

"How could she not?" Narumi asked bitterly "We were all too stupid to tell her the truth when we could! We were worried the truth would upset her!" he ranted, before gaining control of himself. "At about that same time Yuka had snuck on to the campus and had tried to rescue her daughter. When the two finally met… it was a disaster." He said solemnly.

"Yuka showed up and began telling Mikan the truth that she should have known all along, but by then she was so confused. She hadn't come to terms with Luka-kun's death, her self-esteem had been destroyed, and then when her mother charges in trying to tell her the truth, Principal Kuonji interferes and kills her in front of her daughter."

Noda couldn't stop the gasp of shock. Such a thing would have been devastating for the sweet cheerful girl.

"It was more than Mikan could handle at once. Her mind became fractured, and collapsed. In order to cope with everything she had seen and heard all in such a small amount of time, she convinced herself that alice powers were to blame. Almost overnight she became fixated on the idea that the world would be a better place without alices. She started hunting down and stealing alices with zealous fervor. Some she kept to make her stronger, but most she destroyed. She would just take the alice out and then crush the stone she created using a stolen strength alice."

"But her alice is barely stable. How could she have this kind of strength?" Noda asked.

Hotaru scoffed "Don't be a fool and underestimate her. Once she puts her mind to it, she is capable of nullifying any alice type of attack. Stealing an alice appears to take even less effort, up until then she was just too nice in the past to use it against anyone."The inventor's face twisted into an expression of grief, but cleared her expression quickly and continued.

"It is also very important to mention that she has stolen several alices to make her even stronger, but at the same time the stress of having them embedded in her has sent her mind deeper into madness. That thing you saw has stolen the alice of hundreds already including me, her once best friend. Because of her nullification and stolen alices, no one can even get close to her now. Anyone who has tried to stop her has come away either severely injured or killed."

Narumi gave him a hard look "Do you see what we need you to do? She needs to know those truths that we were too afraid to tell her before the Principal gets his hands on her."

Just then a very injured Serina-sensei ran up to them and told them that the High School Principal had been defeated by his niece and she was heading their way.

"We have to evacuate this location and get Noda out of here." He announced. "I can cover everyone's escape. Imai, do you have it?"

The inventor nodded and pulled something out of a secret pocket in her skirt. She was about to give it to Narumi when a hoarse voice interrupted them."

"I'll take it."

The group all looked up to see who had interrupted their conversation.

"Natsume-kun! You shouldn't be up! You're barely standing as it is!" Narumi chastised.

Indeed. Noda looked at the boy and he looked like he could barely stand. His hand was propped against the wall to help hold him up and he was panting like he had just run a marathon.

"Shut up freak and just give it to me!" the boy demanded. "I caught most of your conversation and I'm the best one to buy you time."

"She will kill you for sure this time Natsume."

"I'm dying already and we all know it." The boy said darkly. Noda wondered how long a boy who looked three quarters dead would be able to hold off that monster.

Narumi gave him a sad look. "You know what has to be done. Are you sure you can do it?"

The young man grimaced and nodded holding out his hand. Imai passed the object to him and it turned out to be a ring that the fire alice slipped on to his finger. As far as Noda could tell, it looked like an ordinary ring, but given that it had come from Imai, chances are it was an invention of some sort. Probably the last one she ever made.

Natsume shuffled over to Noda, he was breathing heavy from just traveling that small distance. "Noda-sensei, please make this better. Put Mikan back to the way she was."

Noda understood what the boy was asking of him now and nodded at him. Like Hayate, the young man turned his back on him and walked out. The time traveler was about to wish him luck, but he was sucked back in to a time distortion, on his way to his present.

* * *

~*~*~*~*~*~

Natsume shuffled out of the bunker. Damn, he hurt all over. Even his hair hurt. His last confrontation with Mikan had very nearly killed him.

His breath hitched in a pain that had nothing to do with his body and everything to do with the memory of their last meeting. He could still clearly picture her with that not-quite-sane look on her face as she marched into their classroom and began stealing alices from the first few kids that got close to her. He remembered the screams of horror from the other kids as they realized what she was doing. He had done everything in his power to distract her while the others could escape, but she still managed to get several alice stones. Two of which, included flying and strength, which she pushed into her own body.

With her flying and having extra strong hits, and his fire completely useless against her, she had almost succeded in killing him. Even now he wasn't sure why she didn't.

_Just focus on Noda Natsume._ He told himself. _There is still a chance that Noda can make this all better._

God, he hoped that was true. There should never be a world where _that Mikan_ exists. That wasn't even Mikan anymore. That was a hopelessly insane thing that had taken over the body of the girl he loved.

He really should have told her he loved her. There were so many things he should have said to her. Like how pretty she looked at the Alice festival dressed up in that genie costume. Or how she looked at the Christmas dance and New Year's party. She was so pretty it almost hurt him to look at her. He really should have said something at any of those times, but he was too damn scared to be caught by one of the Principal's spies while watching her with hearts in his eyes.

Naturally, he fell back to playing the role of cold unfeeling bastard. It was a much easier and safer role for both of them at the time, but more than anything he wished he hadn't been so afraid to speak his heart. He should have found some way to confess to her before she changed. _Noda please make this right!_ His heart screamed, gambling on this one small chance.

No, this world, this Mikan, should never have existed. He needed the time traveler to erase it completely. No reality should exist where Mikan Sakura is anything less than cheerful and sweet, with a smile that shines like the sun. He would buy the time Noda and the others needed even if it killed him.

Which it most likely would.

An explosion stopped his forward movement and he was forced to hold his arms over his face to shield his eyes from flying debris. When he pulled them away, he was sickened by what he saw. She had literally blown a clear path for herself that was several meters wide and extended all the way back to the Elementary section of the campus. The girl floating towards him stopped as she saw him.

"Natsume?" she asked in a raspy voice. How long and hard did a voice need to scream to become like that? "You shouldn't be here. I told you that you could leave since I already took your alice."

"Polka-dots you have to stop this." It was probably unwise to antagonize her by still using that nickname, but she would probably be more suspicious if he called her by name.

"Natsume, you should leave before I get angry." She warned, looking slightly irritated.

"Stop this, or I am going to stop you." he said with false bravado, and activated a small ball of fire in his palm. He still couldn't understand why he still had his power when she had already stolen it, but as it was, his body was almost too weak to use it.

Her reaction was immediately one of shock. "You still have your alice? How?"

He allowed the fire to disappear. Any longer and he would faint dead away from strain. But there was no need for her to know that. "It looks like you didn't do such a good job stealing it." Forcing himself to stand up straighter and stop gasping for air like it was his last breath, he called out to her. "I'll let you steal my alice if you let me talk to you first."

The girl shook her head in a childish way that made her look like a petulant four year old. "I don't wanna talk Natsume. Alice's need to go and you are going to try in tell me to keep them. They are bad, evil things that make people do bad, evil things. They have to go."

He was tempted to ague with her that not all alices were bad, but he could see it would be a futile argument. Switching tactics, he tried something a little bolder.

"That wasn't what I was going to say." He responded calmly. "I was going to tell you that I-I l-love you." he stuttered out.

Whatever Mikan was expecting, it wasn't that. She dropped heavily to the ground, but caught herself before she fell. "What? You what?"

"You heard me." He growled in an approximation of his old self.

"B-b-but you can't! You don't!" she said in a slightly frantic voice, causing his expression to soften by a fraction.

"I should have told you sooner. But the truth is I've liked you for a long time."

"Since when?" she shrieked angrily.

"I don't know. When Reo tried to kidnap me or that dodge ball game of ours? I don't know when I started to notice you more than other girls in our class. At first I thought the school had set us up so you could spy on me… but then they were watching you… and you were always being you which was so different… and darn it! I don't know when it started to happen! I just know I do and I should have told you sooner!" he yelled, feeling frustrated and a little embarrassed. He didn't expect to confess to her today and it was coming out all wrong.

At least it was distracting her.

"Natsume," she said, looking lost and confused. Then suddenly in a move that was so quick it almost looked like teleportation, she was in front of him driving her fist hard into his gut. The hit caused him to spew blood out of his mouth and on to her shoulder which was still close to him.

"I think I might like you too, Natsume." She whispered in his ear. "But I can't let you have that alice." And with that, she pulled another alice stone out of his body.

He gripped her shoulders hard to keep from collapsing to the ground. "Mikan," he whispered hoarsely as he changed his hand holds slowly bringing them closer until he had her head cupped in both of his palms and his lips were close enough to kiss her. "I love you so much, and I'm sorry."

Mikan never got a chance to ask what he was sorry for, because he activated the ring Imai gave him. A long metal spike shot in behind her ear and out through the top of her head on the other side.

Having almost depleted all of his strength, he wasn't able to stop them from falling together. He retracted the ring dagger that Imai had made and looked at the stone embedded in it. It was the same minuscule nullification stone that she had given him long ago. He had allowed the inventor to have it in order to create a weapon that Mikan herself would be defenseless against.

Just then his body became wracked with heavy coughing and he was having troubles breathing or seeing clearly. Damn, she must have done more damage than he thought. His body was bleeding internally and there was no one going to come to his rescue.

Weakly, he scooted over until he was snuggled close to the love of his young, but soon to be over life. He held up the ring at her. "You see? I kept your stone." He told her then looked at her eyes that were staring sightless to the sky. Ever so gently he brushed his hands down over her eyelids, closing them.

"Now don't look at me like that. I've got a plan." He whispered. It was getting too hard to talk, so he kept his words in his head. _You'll see, Noda will go back and fix everything. I will protect you better next time. And maybe we could go to the next Alice Festival together. Like on a date._

The blackness that was at the edge of his vision, was now all he could see, so he closed his eyes. Just how long does it take to change a timeline anyway?

_You'll see… we could go on a date… and you would… be… m'girlfrnd…_ his thoughts were having trouble focusing and he was getting so very tired. At least he didn't hurt anymore. Was the loss of pain supposed to be a bad thing? He couldn't seem to remember. What could he remember? Mikan, his Mikan… and Noda… something about Noda… oh… yes…_Noda… _

_please… _

_make it right… _

_

* * *

  
_

~*~*~*~*~

Noda came out of the time stream at almost a dead run regardless of the disorientation he normally felt. There was no time. No time at all.

Odd thoughts from a time traveler.

The very first thing he did was barge into the High School Principal's office, completely ignoring the man's assistant.

"Sir! We have a very big problem!" he yelled but then stopped dead as he recognized the room's other occupants. The most significant person being Yuka Azumi.

"Yuka!" he yelled, not realizing that he looked like some sort of crazy person to everyone else in the room "Excellent! You can be of great help with your daughter!"

"What's wrong with Mikan?" she asked looking instantly alarmed, along with everyone else. Noda didn't answer her, instead he looked back at the Principal.

"Sir! We need to get to her right away!"

The man gave him a regretful look "Unfortunately, my informants tell me she has been caught using her stealing alice and is on her way to Principal Kuonji right now. We will have to wait for the right time to sneak her away from him."

"NO!" Noda yelled but then forcibly calmed himself "We need her now. There are truths that she needs to know before the Principal gets his hands on her and distorts them."

Principal Yukihira gave him a hard look. Although Noda could seem a bit flaky, he was never so wild or frantic looking unless there was a very good reason. Reluctantly he nodded, already trying to think of what kind of backlash he would get from Kuonji.

Noda sighed visibly in relief. "Alright, I have some things I need to take care of. I will return here."

The first thing he did was to travel back in time by several hours and leave a note for Natsume in his room warning him that Principal Kuonji was on the verge of capturing Mikan. That should be enough to keep him from his mission. The mission was technically in the past, but it directly affected the future, so he hoped he could change it without creating too many time distortions.

Secondly, he placed a cake laced with sleeping potion right in Hayate's path and placed him in a spot where the Imai girl would show up. Clearly the boy had feelings for the young girl and he was banking on them to force him to protect her.

His last and most important task was to find Luka and collect the boy before he was accidentally killed. He wasn't going to trust that job to anyone else. With Luka-kun alive the future would already change, even a little bit. They reappeared in the Principal Yukihira's office and Noda's heart gave a little lurch when he saw her there.

She was still the Mikan he remembered. Cute and sweet, although currently she also looked a little scared and confused but it wasn't any where near the monstrosity that he had glimpsed in the future. When the Principal suggested that he take her to her past, Noda didn't put up any arguments.

He would to this. He had to do this. He would show her the truths she needed to know. It might hurt her, but he would accept the burden. In order to avoid the nightmare he had just witnessed, he would do this.

He would show her who her parents were and a piece of her treasured innocence would be forever lost.

He would make her see the responsibilities involving her alices and she would never quite be the same cheerful girl as she was right now.

He would let her know just what the Elementary Principal was capable of to get his way and her smile would never be quite as bright.

She might even resent him later for doing this, but it was worth it.

He would make it right.

Owari

Oohh... psycho Mikan. I wasn't sure I could do it and still keep it in the current story line.

It is interesting, there seem to be two mindsets regarding Mikan's potential. Some belive she has great potential with her alices and what she could do with them. Others don't even want to contemplate that she could ever get past a one star level in both brains and alice ability.


End file.
